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War Thunder 1.87: Alaska map and the USS Somers (DD-381)

Today we have been given the next upcoming pieces of content to appear in War Thunder 1.87. We shall start with the USS Somers first, this Rank III American destroyer will grace Naval forces in the upcoming patch, and on the surface, it is going to be a deadly adversary.

USS Somers (DD-381) – Rank III American Destroyer

The ship is both blessed with good speed and a good weapon loadout. Armed with 8 127mm cannons in 4 Mk.22 dual mounts, and a total of 12 torpedoes in 3 quadruple mounts this ship is perfectly armed to take on enemy destroyers and with AP enemy light cruisers. With a speed of 37 knots (69 km/h) it will be able to contest caps early and take up good positions behind islands to ambush unaware enemies.

However, as soon as enemy planes start to enter the skies, this ship will struggle. Armed with 2 of the infamous Chicago Pianos, the 1.1″/75 calibre guns, and 2 Browning .50″ machine guns, it will not be shooting down many planes without support. To make matters worse, due to the design of the Mk.22 dual mounts, the main guns armed with proximity fuse shells will not be able to elevate to certain angles.

Overall, this ship is set to be a fun one to play, but be wary late game when enemy planes start to emerge and move into a position with other friendly ships that are built to deal with such threats like cruisers and dedicated AA destroyers like the Battle class or the Allan M. Sumner class.

Alaska – New location

The other devblog we got today covers a new map for ground forces. Based on the beautiful scenery of Alaska, both teams will be fighting over an urban environment to gain control over objectives. For those of you who prefer to snipe or take part in flanking movements though, there is the option to fight over the outskirts which have been stated to allow better visibility and permit longer engagement ranges.

While the map itself does look beautiful, I have a feeling that second line tanks and snipers are going to suffer on this map, as I feel the urban centre is going to take much more strategic importance over all other areas. However, we can not make a full judgement on the map until we get a chance to play it.

That’s all the WT devblogs from today, stay tuned and I will keep you updated about the next 1.87 news we get.